Boys singing before bed...

Yesterday after church we went to a friend's house for Sunday lunch. Addie took a nap there but the boys both stayed up and played. We had a great time, but at the end of the day we had some really tired boys so we made a parental decision to put them to bed a few minutes early. Jack, being particularly 'Jackish', noticed that he was in his bed three minutes before seven instead of seven or after so he called out wondering why. We told him because he was tired. I then said 'if you think it is too early Jack you all can sing songs until seven'. We then heard this song which I taped through their bedroom door (they had no idea I was taping):





And just to prove that parents do know best, we didn't hear another word after this song and Jack slept until 7:45 am this morning instead of his usual bounding out of his room at seven!

Jack's history lesson

This morning while Jack was telling me something that was going on in his 'make belief world where his little soldiers talk to each other' this is what he said:


Jack: This happened a long time ago Mom. I mean a really really long time ago. Like way back to the 1960s.
Erin (a bit amused) : Really that far back?

Jack (completely serious) : Yes, so far back like the 1960s. You know, like right after the Bible was written.

Happy Birthday PaPa!

Our Precious Theo....

We are fortunate enough to have a lovely girl(lady??? - what do you call someone in their late twenties?) called Grace look after the kids for four hours each morning the day I work. We feel blessed with Grace (and all the other babysitters in the past that God has provided for me to return to work one day a week). Normally, Charles comes home at lunchtime to look after the kids in the afternoon. Well, this week I worked from campus instead of going into the office since Charles is out of town so I was the one who interacted with Grace when coming home. Later that day I received this email from Grace which I thought was worth recording for memory-sake:

'The other thing was Charles usually asks me for good and bad points from the morning so a couple of good points from yesterday - Jack was very kind in stepping back to let Theo find some eggs and also they both were very thankful to Reesy for coming and helping. Jack was very quick to say Reesy should have the first egg and more than one for doing it for us!! They were also very lovely meeting Becky and Theo in particular seemed to enjoy chatting to her (and climbing on her, being careful of the baby bump!). Addie was a very happy and chatty girl yesterday, and particularly cuddly and climby too which was very sweet! There were no bad points…at least until Theo munched the extra chocolate.'

Grace and her husband 'Reesy' had arranged an easter egg hunt for the kids. It is nice to get such a glowing report on the kids, but what was priceless was when she was leaving I told Theo that he had had enough chocolate. I made it very clear that he would be disciplined if he ate another piece. Grace and I then walked into the kitchen to find Theo with said wrapper in hand and Theo's mouth dripping with chocolate. He just couldn't resist the temptation. He couldn't leave good enough alone. Don't we as adults often fall into this temptation????

The striking thing is that this is the same little boy that yesterday during nap time called out crying because he had 'accidentally ripped a page out of a book' that he was allowed to take to bed with him. The story gets most interesting when I reveal that the book was the Bible and the page he tore out was 'Adam and Eve getting discipline and sent out of the garden'. Any connection between these two stories???

Aren't we all like Theo? We all too often fall to temptation? And we all too often wish there weren't consequences for our bad decisions! But Thank God for sending Jesus who did what we cannot - conquer sin and death!

Theo's Invite List

With the Royal Wedding, quickly approaching 'invitation lists' have been a big source of discusion. On that note, Theo informed me of his birthday invitation list:

Jack
Molly (his friend)
Jos Myers (his friend)
Addie
Daddy

Then to my prompting, 'anyone else, Theo?'

Theo quickly responded 'no'.

I have three months to improve my standing in Theo's world unless I might be missing my son's three-year-old party!